Three reasons why I love using cloth diapers

My little guy, Silas, is six weeks old today and just started using cloth diapers full time with him this week. Thanks to some generous friends, we we able to use disposables for his first weeks but that stash is practically gone so cloth it is! I used cloth diapers with my twins 5 years ago until they were potty trained but I had forgotten how much I liked using cloth. Here are 3 reasons why I love using cloth diapers: 

My current stash: All-in-ones on the right and my homemade bamboo prefolds and covers on the left

 #1 I don't have to worry about running out

When using the disposables over these past 6 weeks, I was very aware of how quickly the bag was emptying. I would even get annoyed when Silas would poop as soon as I put on a clean diaper. "Geez, kid! that was clean! Let's keep it that way for at least an hour, k?" 

With cloth diapers, I can just run a load of laundry instead of getting irrationally angry with my newborn. ;)

 #2 I can change him as much as I want to

This reason is related to #1, of course. Because I'm not worried about running out, I can change him as much as I want to without worrying about throwing "x amount" of money in the trash with every change. I once heard a parent confess that they only changed their (older) baby twice a day because diapers were so expensive. I really felt for this parent because I know all about tight budgets. With cloth, I know that I am getting my money's worth out of the diapers and I can change my baby every hour if I want to--not that I'm in love with diaper duty, but hey! I have the option. 

#3 Cloth diapers are SO cute on my baby!

Ah-dor-a-ble!!  

First week of School = So what do I DO all day long?

The boys started 4-K on Monday. It is a program at our neighborhood elementary school and is ALL. DAY. LONG. 8:40-3:30 to be exact. 

Here they are on their first day of school.

Seems like they inherited their Dad's photogenic image....

Benji the Speediest! 

(as he has been introducing himself lately)

(Awkward) picture of Mighty Micah

It has been really weird to have them gone all day. My days seem really long without our "normal" schedule. 

On one hand, I have so much free time! 

Clean the house uninterrupted? yes!

Go to work at Liberty? Check!

Eat lunch with Aaron? Yes, please!

Go to Starbucks with a girlfriend for two hours? Yes, yes, yes! 

On the other hand, I miss my little guys. I have had emotionally down moments every day realizing that our routine and schedule of the last almost-five years is over. 

Playing at Kids Cove? 

Story time at the Library?

Visiting the park?

Playdates with friends? 

All of these things can still happen, of course, but not on the weekly basis that was our normal routine. 

Plus, I know I am missing out on all the funny things they say and do each day. 

And all the hugs, kisses, and "I love you, mommy's" 

Sniff, sniff.

So, this is a big transition for our family. 

But really, my kid-free life is only going to last about 2 more months. 

Then I'll be juggling a newborn and twins with a school schedule. 

So I'm going to enjoy it while I can--hopefully my emotions will cooperate and enjoy it with me. 

This is actually what I have been doing for 3 days straight: 

Cutting out FORTY diapers that I will be selling at Kidz Kraze in about 3.5 weeks. Whew! This was a lot of work. Now I just have to sew them all. 

I think I will keep plenty busy. 

BAM Diaper end-of-the-year SALE!

Is one of your New Years Resolutions to save money in 2012 by using cloth diapers? Jump start that resolution by taking advantage of my BAM Diaper end-of-the-year sale! 

These 6 diapers are left over from my sewing this year and I am selling them for $12 each or 25% off normal retail ($16 each)! This is a great price for an AIO diaper.

Each of these diapers is a Medium or 20-30 lbs. 

Click here for more details about the BAM Cloth diaper

UPDATE: Both yellow diapers and the pink diaper have been sold (as of Dec 28)

Want an even more economic way to diaper your little one? BAM Diaper covers and prefolds are a great way to go! Each cover (10-20 lbs or Small & 20-30 lbs or Medium) is $10 each.

Click her for more details about the BAM Diaper Cover (scroll down for pictures) 

Send me (Brittany) an email at bmeng@liberty.edu if you are interested! I ship too ($5 extra)!

BAM Diapers: Blue and Pink!

Introducing NEW COLORS for BAM diapers....

 ....for your baby boy or your baby girl.

 Royal blue for your little man--you don't get much more "boy" than this blue!

 Powder pink for your little lady

(I am in love with how sweet this pink diaper is. Maybe it is because I don't have any girls. But seriously! How perfect is this for your sweet and soft baby girl?)

 The BAM Diaper has a unique tri-fold soaker of bamboo fleece and cotton. 

Sewn in at one end....

 ....yet free at the other end, this soaker is super-absorbent yet is able to unfold in the wash to get extra clean. 

Plus, this all-in-one diaper dries in one drier cycle.

Even better? There is no stuffing involved!

Want more color options for your baby? 

 

Sunshine yellow is available 

as well as Aqua Blue

Send me an email (bmeng@liberty.edu) or FB message (Search: BAM Cloth Diapers) if you would like to order a BAM diaper or BAM cover (prefect for prefolds!)

Sizes: 

Small = 10-20 lbs

Medium = 20-30 lbs 

Prices:

AIO diaper: $16 each

Cover:  $10

Goin' Crunchy: Homemade Laundry Detergent

I guess I am a little crunchy--you know, granola? Hippie? Make your own stuff-kinda-girl? Maybe it's my obsession over cloth diapers, who knows?

Anyways, I finally got up the courage to make some Homemade Laundry Detergent!

Supplies:

Ivory Soap

Borax

Washing Soda (NOT Baking Soda)

Hand grater

Container

Tablespoon

Maybe you have never heard or seen Borax and Washing Soda. They are actually really easy to find--I bought mine in the laundry aisle at Kroger. Amazing! And you can find Ivory soap anywhere. Ivory is good for this because it is pretty much pure soap--no fancy extra stuff. 

Stay pure, my friends.

Directions:

Grate soap with hand grater. If you had a food processor, I'm sure this would go much faster, but, alas, I do not have one. It really only took 3-4 minutes.

Admire your pretty pile of soap shavings. 

Then dump them into your container

Add one cup of Borax. Add one cup of Washing Soda. 

(I doubled my batch today so I grated 2 bars of soap and added 2 cups of both Borax and Washing Soda)

Stir for a few minutes (yes, minutes) with a wooden spoon. It takes a bit of stirring to combine everything completely. Smash any lumps up with the back of your spoon--the Borax tends to clump. 

When you are done stirring (2-4 minutes), it should look like this: Nice and smooth/crumbly

Add a Tablespoon to your mix. Cover.

DONE!

To use: Add one-two level tablespoons per load. We have an HE washer and this is perfect because it produces very low suds.

This is the second time I have made this (I didn't want to advise others to use it until I had used it myself for a while). One batch makes 32-64 loads, depending on how much you use. I have found that I need 2 TBS per load, as I like to cram as much in my washer as I can and I live with 3 stinky boys. I have also found that a warm/cold wash works better than cold/cold but this detergent works fine in cold water too.

As there are no added fragrances, the clothes come out of the washer smelling slightly of soap--a nice fresh, clean smell. 

Also, there are no brighteners or stain lifters. To compensate for that, because I live with 3 boys, I add one scoop of generic oxyclean to the drum of my washer (on the clothes, not in the dispenser). This seems to really help with stains and odors. Of course, pretreat really bad stains as you normally would. 

The really, really nice thing about this detergent is it is so cost effective. I bought the Ivory soap (3 bars), Borax and Washing Soda for a little over $14. After making three batches, I still have over half a box of both Borax and Washing Soda left. I will need to buy more Ivory next time I make some (which will be in a few months since I made a double batch today) but three bars at Walgreens cost less than $2. Math has never been my strong suit but I believe the final tally comes out to 3-4c per load. I would always cringe when I shelled out $20+ bucks for HE laundry detergent. Now, I have found something that is super cheap and works really well! 

So go ahead, be crunchy. Make your own laundry detergent.

It really works.  

The New and Improved BAM Diaper Cover

Remember this post: "BAM Diaper Cover: An Experiment"? I had several wonderful moms try out my diaper cover, some as far away as Alaska and Rhode Island! 

Here is what they had to say: 

I started using this diaper cover when my daughter was around 8 1/2 lbs.  Since our prefolds are all too big and bulky for this cover, I use my small gDiaper inserts.  That insert length works perfectly with this cover and keeps the messes in very well.  I haven't had problems with leaks and the cover and insert make for a very trim-looking diaper.  I love how easy this cover is to wipe off and clean.  The velcro fasteners create a very snug waist and fold back easily for washing.  I use several (size small) BAM all-in-one diapers and this cover has the same trim fit.  Overall, great cover! ~Erica

I wanted to update you on our Diaper Experiment. it's going GREAT! it has washed up well (no fraying or anything like that), we've had no leaks or blow outs, and it fits really well- even with xavier's chunky belly and thighs. so far so good! thanks for letting him be a guinea pig. :O) i like all-in-ones more than any other style of cloth diaper (just way easy!) but this is a close second. we're using mock g-diapers and that isn't going nearly as well as your's. ~Aya

So far, I *love* the cover . . . I really like how trim the cover is- the tabs over the hips are much thinner than bummis/motherease/kissaluv covers that I've used. This is really nice, because I feel like it makes it easier to move around in. The downside to the trim fit is that I doubt the cover would fit well over contours or fitted diapers. I have been using flats or infant-sized prefolds (which is my personal preference, since we change with every wet- about every hour the babe is awake). I did *JUST BARELY* manage to stuff a regular sized prefold in once, but there were big gaps around the legs from the overstuffing. I'd personally like to see a little more space in the butt of the diaper- we didn't have any "blowouts" while trying the cover, but I am a little nervous bc of the cover's tight fit that the it might not hold the mess in. ~Rachel

OKAY-We tried the cover over the last two days-with inserts, with pre-folds and with flats. The main problem we had was the fit. The material around the edges seemed to fold in on itself after it was prepped so that was tough also. It didn't want to stay flat while I was trying to get it on my son and since the fit was so small, it made it even harder. I don't know if the size was just off-my son is 9 weeks and just over 12 pounds now. I couldn't fit it over the flat diaper without tons of the diaper coming out. It was very trim, which I like but a bit too trim to really fit the diaper. I also couldn't get the waist tight enough while being big enough around the thighs. Aside from the rolling and the fit issues, it seemed to work well. The material left a bit of a red mark around the waist and thighs but it could have been from me trying to get a good fit. There were no leaks during testing either.  ~Laurie

So, there were some good things going on with the BAM cover:

Trim fit

No leaks

But some obvious problems too, the biggest being fit, a pretty important issue. 

I went back to the drawing board and designed a new cover, inspired by the FLIP system of diaper cover. The new BAM cover has been tested and it works well! 

So I would like to introduce the NEW and IMPROVED 

BAM Diaper Cover

 Same shape as the BAM All In One with fold-back laundry tabs

IMPROVEMENTS =

One layer of PUL (still thoroughly waterproof)

Wider through the legs and tush area

Improved elastic gussets in the legs and back

 Pocket in the front and back to keep prefold diaper in place 

The most important aspect I improved was the fit around the legs. I made sure that the prefold would fit in the cover securely without sticking out at all. 

The prefold (Chinese prefold, green trim) pictured is an Infant size and fits perfectly in this Small cover.  However, a Regular size prefold will also work if you fold the short ends in (as opposed to the long ends, as pictured above. Hope this makes sense). 

Using a cover and prefold system is a very economical way to cloth diaper your baby. For every dozen prefold diapers you buy (roughly $1.50 each), you only need 3-4 covers. 

BAM Diaper Covers:

Small (10-20lbs): $10.00

Medium (20-30lbs): $10.00

Please email me if you would like to place an order: bmeng@liberty.edu

Happy Cloth Diapering! 

BAM Diapers: August Special!

For this month I will be offering a SPECIAL Offer for BAM Cloth diapers: 

Ten FREE cloth Wipes when you buy...

 ...three BAM All-in-One Diapers!

 Cloth wipes just make sense when using cloth diapers. BAM cloth wipes are made of soft flannel and are zig-zagged to prevent fraying. These sturdy wipes really get the job done whether they are dry, used with water, or with a homemade wipes solution (there are plenty of "recipes" online!). After using, just throw these wipes in your diaper pail with your diapers and wash. Then use again. And again!  More money saved for your family! 

 I currently have plenty of light yellow and light aqua PUL for diapers. I also have a few small (10-20lbs) cuts of PUL in bright yellow, red, and green. 

Want to take advantage of this Special Offer? Email me: bmeng@liberty.edu

(Just want some wipes? 10 wipes for $5) 

BAM Diaper Cover: An Experiment

I wish you all could see this diaper cover in person--it is seriously the cutest thing I have made in, well, maybe ever! It is so tiny!  

Here is a comparison between this little cover, to fit a newborn up to 10 lbs (maybe?) next to a 20-30 lb AIO diaper

The reason I wanted to experiment with making a cover is that I recommend covers to people. All-in-one diapers can be expensive (even mine, though at $16 they are at the bottom of the price range as far as All-in-one diapers go). Lots of families (including mine, when my boys were under 15 lbs) can't afford to buy AIOs when their babies are little. 

 Enter the diaper cover! A diaper cover is a waterproof shell that you use with an absorbent inner diaper of your choice. This is a prefold diaper folded in thirds (this is the system I used when my boys were tiny). A fitted diaper could also be used (a fitted looks like a regular AIO but without a waterproof layer)

 The BAM cover is made out of two layers of durable waterproof PUL for extra protection. The shiny inside layer wipes clean--if the prefold is only wet, the cover can be wiped dry and a new prefold can be used. See the genius of the cover? you only need a 3-4 covers per dozen diapers (such as prefolds or fitteds, which are much more economical than AIOs)

 The BAM cover has laundry tabs, just like BAM AIO, so that there will be no snags in the washer or dryer

 Here is the real clincher on how tiny this thing is--my model is my American Girl doll! Good ol' Molly!  Like I said, this cover was an experiment and would only fit a tiny newborn. I would normally sew on a strip of loop so that the tabs can double over but what baby would ever be that skinny? (ok, maybe a preemie, like my own kiddos...but any full term babe wouldn't need the double over tab)

 Like the BAM All-in-one, the cover has gusseted leg and back elastic that rolls in to keep  wetness and messes inside

The BAM Cover
(Thanks for modeling, Molly!)

I often encourage pregnant moms who are looking into cloth diapers for their babies to go with covers and prefold diapers at first or use a combination of prefolds/covers + AIOs.

Here is a breakdown of cost:

1 Dozen Chinese Prefolds (one of the best brands) = ~$24

4  BAM covers = $32 ($8 each)

Total = $56

I used a cover and prefold system when my kiddos were little because we were going through dozens of diapers a day. All-in-ones just weren't practical or affordable at this stage. When my boys got a little older and were going through fewer changes a day, we switched to a combination of prefold/covers and AIOs. 

Now, back to the "experiment" of this cover--I have never used this type of cover before (unlike the AIOs which I used on my own kids) so I don't know how it works or if it needs improvement. If you or someone you know would like to be a tester for me, I will make you one cover for FREE in your choice of size in exchange for an honest review of the diaper cover as well as improvements that could be made.

Interested? Email me: bmeng@liberty.edu

UPDATE: (Tuesday July 18 2011)
I currently have 5 testers! Thank you so much for your willingness to try out the BAM cover! I will blog about the reviews in a few weeks to let everyone know how the new cover works. 

BAM Diapers: New Colors!

I am currently offering two new colors for BAM diapers: Aqua Blue and Butter Yellow. 

 These beautiful pastels are perfect for your baby boy or baby girl. 

 Like what you see? Send me an email bmeng@liberty.edu to place your order

The two standard sizes I sew are 10-20 lbs and 20-30 lbs.

$16 per diaper

(larger (30+) or smaller (newborn-10lbs) diaper sizes are available upon request)

BAM Diapers: Rave Review!!

I had my first (un)official review of my BAM diapers today. My friend Amanda wrote on FB last night:

"I need an order for 10 more diapers!!!! LOVE THEM so much more than my BumGenius ones!!!!! The hubby loves them too (he is against CD) and he told me he wants more of these! Just an example, we were testing them today! She has been in the green one since 1pm [She wrote this at 9pm] and I just changed it with NO leeks!!!! OMG! These are awesome!!!!!"


YEA! I am so excited that she likes them--and that she wants more. In fact, I whipped up two more for her this morning and she came by and picked up four more diapers. I will be sewing her six more in the next few weeks. 


I also sold nine diapers this weekend at a Cloth Diaper yard sale. This is the third time I have done this sale (it is hosted by a local natural baby store) and it was actually the worst sale of all three. However, I was glad to sell what I did and I was able to give out my cute little business card that Aaron made me to a few people. 
(sadly, blogger doesn't like the formatting of the business card so I can't post it here...)

I am so glad that I have broken even on the material I bought for this endeavor and have now made money too. So thankful! Thanks again to all who have supported me in this new adventure. I have more diapers left to sell too in both 10-20 lbs and 20-30 lbs ($16 each). Just send me a message if you are interested!

BAM Diapers: They're here!!

My sewing machine has been humming away this week! The first BAM Diapers are done! I absolutely love how they turned out. The colors are vibrant and the inside is so soft. 

 These red and green diaper actually belong to my friend Amanda's little girl. She pre-ordered and is officially my first customer. Thanks Amanda! I hope you love them. :) 

 A peek inside. The soaker is made of organic Bamboo/cotton fleece. It is so soft--like the inside of a brand-new sweatshirt. 

 The second layer of the soaker is cotton flannel in a cute print. The print varies per diaper and adds a fun and cute element to each one. 

These three diapers are for sale. I have both sizes  (10-20 lbs/ 20-30 lbs) in all four colors: red, yellow, blue, green (see above). 

BAM Diapers: Special Preview!

Welcome to a first look at BAM cloth diapers! I have sewn diapers for my boys but starting this month, I will be sewing diapers to sell to other cloth diapering families. These diapers do a wonderful job of keeping in the messes and they don't leak.

I love this style of diaper! I used them on both my boys for over two years. I purchased the pattern from diaperkit.com (sadly, this WAHM is going out of business).

Here is a sneak peek into the details of a BAM diaper:

A waterproof PUL outer layer in bright, beautiful colors. 

 Check out these beauties: Sunshine Yellow, Apple Red, Aqua Blue, Grass Green

 Inside: Two layers of soft cotton. 

Soaker layer of organic bamboo/cotton. Bamboo is perfect for cloth diapers. It is super soft, doesn't retain odors like 100% cotton can, and is extremely absorbent.

 BAM diapers have a tri-folded soaker for 6 super absorbent layers for even the heaviest wetters. The soaker is sewn on one end. This means no un-stuffing a soggy (or worse!) diaper and eliminates the labor of stuffing a soaker in a diaper before you put it on your baby. 

This a true All-in-One! 

Plus, the unique tri-fold soaker flows free in the wash to get extra clean. 

An extra plus? This diaper dries in one drier cycle!! 

(Left: 10-20 lbs; Right: 20-30 lbs)

 Simple hook and loop closure "grows" with your baby. No messing with snaps in the middle of the night. 

Hook and loop doubles over for a snug fit on even the slenderest babies, but it also fits chubbier tummies and thighs as well!

 Modeling the BAM diaper

 What a happy boy! 

Want to pre-order your BAM diapers? Choose from one of the four the colors above, 

10-20 lbs OR 20-30 lbs. 

Cost: $16 each

Thanks for checking out this special preview of BAM cloth diapers!

Please email me if you have any questions or to place your order: bmeng@liberty.edu